Traveling to Cuba

Traveling to Cuba can be one of those life transforming experiences.
Here we present some practical information to help make that a reality. There
are always two aspects of going to Cuba, the part having to do with the Cuban government,
of course, and, especially in the case of the US, the part having to do with your country
of residence.

There are some categories which qualify for a treasury
license: full time students, musicians, dancers, anyone going down for professional
reasons, such as journalists, researchers, or folks arraning for
informational materials under the Berman
amendment. Cuban Americans. For these you just sign an affidavits prior
to going down. Treasury tends to encourage group travel and frowns on
individual tourism, which makes you wonder who is the collectivist here....
In all the years of the travel restrictions, up until the Bush 2
administration, very few people had been prosecuted. The
Office of Foreign Assets Control in the Treasury Department said in
1999 that there were
only 16 criminal prosecutions for nine violations since 1983. Since 2001,
the number has gone up, and prosecutions are more numerous,
with hefty fines imposed of $6,000 to $10,000, though this halted under
Obama and does not seem to have restarted under Trump. The penalties on
record are stiff: $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in the pen, but it is not
clear if the government can actually collect these fines. The situation has gotten to the point where people are getting
together to create a legal defense organization to defend the right to
travel.

Others who apply for a license that they need to receive in their hands
are subject to resource scarcities within Treasury, the body that grants licenses. Unless
of course you get one through your academic institution if they have had the foresight
(perhaps with some help from you, dear reader!) to get a general license enabling them to
issue licenses to their students, staff, and faculty.

Be warned that licenses from Treasury may not come or may come too late for travel if you
don't give yourself plenty of lead time and put in for a date ahead of the one you
need. Also note a recent disturbing trend of denying more of these licenses than has
been the case in the past, possibly due to pressure from a certain section
of el Exilio, who get mad
when Americans travel to Cuba. These people have arrogated themselves
the position of leaders even when many Cuban Americans do not agree with
them -- they have a lot of money, some
of it from dubious sources, and have bought or bullied a lot of people in the government,
many of whom are still obsessing over the anticommunism of the cold war.
Counterbalancing this is the new ability of universities and others to grant licenses:
they receive a license from Treasury to do this. It's not automatic and you will
need to prod your institution into getting with this program.

We do not recommend going through the Bahamas. US Customs there have been
known to confiscate religious objects. Also, as one reader reports: "Jamaica, Bermuda, and the Dominican Republic permit US Customs and CIA
'stations' in their major airports; Mexico does not." Note that the CIA is
probably more focused on spying than law enforcement, so the determining factor is more
likely the presence of Customs.

When you travel via Cancun, you pass customs in the US. Via Canada, you
pass US customs in Canada, but they seem more reasonable and less apt to 'tag' you.
If you've been bad and have asked the
Cubans and the Mexicans not to stamp your passport (bribing the Mexicans with $20 folded
into your passport, although some say that is not necessary), then be sure to tell the
truth if later on a US Customs agent asks you where you've been. It's a worse sin (a
felony) to lie to a federal officer than to go to Cuba without a license, which is
punished by fines. Be aware that you have to ask both the Cubans and the
Mexicans to not stamp your passport or they will. The Cubans will
usually honor this request
for free.

Note: there have been reports of people being fined even though they did
not bring anything back with them from Cuba or give themselves away in an obvious
manner.... This is true even through Mexico, where they have been
known to give the US the passenger manifests...

When you come back from Cuba under a license, you are able
to bring in items protected by the Berman
amendment: books, CDs, videos, even works of art.

The regulations on this vary from airline to airline -- check with them. Cubana is among the strictest, and will even
refuse to take on excess bags. Check with your
carrier ahead of time. Their stated policies are sometimes stricter than what they
do on the ground...

The tourist visas for anyone, American or not, as long as you were not born in Cuba or are
not visiting Cuban relatives, are easy to obtain and come as a part of your travel package
when you buy your ticket or can be purchased at selected airports. Visas for journalists and researchers declared as such are
a separate matter and require an application to the Cuban Consulate in your country (Washington, DC for the US). Cuban Americans born
in Cuba also need to get special permission as they are viewed with somewhat more
suspicion and have to be checked out... see Cuban
Interests Section.

Be sure to understand some essentials of Cuban law. You will need to have a hotel
room/private house (casa particular) arranged in Cuba before you get there, or at least have one to declare to Imigracion
when you arrive. You can stay at a friend's house or a licensed private boarding house,
but we suggest you do that only if they have cleared the way for it. Cuban citizens
can be fined $1,000 (a fortune in Cuba) for having a foreigner as an overnight guest if
they themselves don't

1) get permission from Imigracion or
2) pay $100/month or more for a license to do this on a commercial basis.

This fine can be doubled if not paid in 30 days, after which they go to jail at the rate
of $1/day. Cubans can get permission to have a foreign friend stay at their house,
but this requires that they go and declare you with Imigracion and you will need to go and
show your passport. As of spring, '99, this procedure has been simplified and anyone
can have a foreign guest by paying for a $50 ($40?) stamp ahead of time with Imigracion,
which gives one permission to have a foreign guest for a determined stay.Once in Cuba, be aware that some Cubans are eager to hustle you and that this can
be severely punished - prostitution can get the woman 5 years in jail and, under the new
laws, 20 years or more for the pimp. Informal street vending can be punished by fines and jail time. Ordinary Cubans
walking the streets with foreigners are automatically subject to a check on ID papers to
the point where many Cubans refuse to walk with foreigners as they could be fined if their
papers are not in order. This is even more the case for black cubans, who will
be singled out when white cubans are let by.

In general, Cuban police lean over backwards not to molest tourists since Cuba is so
dependent on tourism for income and since Cubans are basically very polite people and
hospitable to strangers.

Personal security on the island is in general quite good. Until recently,
crime was little known. That is changing with the continued economic hard
times and we have seen a rise in crime which reached dangerous levels in '97 and
'98 in certain areas such as Old Havana (Habana Vieja) and parts of Santiago,
where purse snatchings and muggings were common. Because of this,
there is now extra vigilance by the police who have taken to asking for
IDs a lot more frequently and crime has gone down all over. Such ID checks
are common in tourist and high visibility areas such as the Malecon along the
Havana shore. It is less common in non-tourist areas. The 2001
changes in the penal code drastically increase prison sentences,
though prisoners are eligible for parole after serving half of their sentences, unlike the
US where parole is increasingly not part of the picture. Already a Cuban can get a
jail sentence of up to 70 years for fighting with or attacking a tourist. Even so, best to
consult local Cubans on what are the safe areas and what aren't. However, with the
crackdown, folks report that foreigners feel they can walk the streets again...

The level of crime in the worst places is not even comparable to US
levels, though hard numbers are not easy to come by. Many Cubans are in fact
supportive of the current crackdown as there is a tremendous personal fear triggered by a
few murders. They have nothing to compare this to and are unaware that their murder
rate is far, far less than what can be experienced in any major US city.

The dollar is no longer recognized in Cuba. You will need to change them into
Convertible (CUC).

Credit cards, including Visa/MasterCard, are recognized in Cuba so long as they
are not from a US bank. People report mixed results with travelers' checks. Non-US
based checks definitely work, as do checks bought in the US via companies such as Thomas
Cook. Some have reported that US based CityBank traveler's checks work but American
Express don't -- perhaps this is a result of some past dispute. Others say American
Express checks work fine. However, we did get a note from an American Express employee who
lost her checks in Cuba and was refused reimbursement. So it may be the case that
you can cash travelers checks bought in the US or from a US company, but you may not be able to get
your money back if they are stolen! Check on this matter with whoever you buy
from...

US travelers frequently either pay in cash or use travelers checks from Thomas
Cook. One easy way is to establish Canadian card is Transcard,
a debit card where you can deposit funds before your trip, even if you do not live in
Canada. If you travel through a third country, you can buy travelers' checks in that
country (not American Express!) before getting into Cuba, and they will be recognized in
Cuba as well as reimbursed if lost.

Visit their web site,
www.cuba-travel.com.
Roberto Paneque is Cuban and knows his island well. He can fix you up with a variety of
deals. Cancun is a flexible departure point, with many flights to Havana. AeroMexico is
among the most lenient airlines for excess weight, charging only $1 pound as of 6/99
(double check!).

Common Ground Travel

The grand-dady of the Cuban tour operators. Many tours covering a variety of subjects.
Like any US group, they must insure compliance with licensing requirements. Departures via
Miami and other points. See: www.marazultours.com.

A little piece of Havana in DC! 202 797-8518 and 8519
For the consulate: 202 797-8609, 8610 (frequently busy, you may have to redial 50 times)
See also our page on them, where we list events we hear about: Cuban
Interests Section

For travel to Cuba, the visa is given directly by the travel agency/tour operator so
you don't need to contact the Section. Only Cuban Americans, journalists and
researchers need to clear their visas through the Cuban Interests Section.

To help
Americans understand the rules and regulations governing travel to Cuba, the U.S. embargo
against the island and other issues, the State Department has unveiled a special Web site,
reports The Associated Press.

For the first time since the early 1960s, there are direct passenger flights
between New York and Cuba starting Friday Dec 17, 1999. The flights by Marazul
Charters go from Kennedy Airport to Havana. The round-trip fare will be $629, about
$300 less than from New York to Havana via Miami.

We have heard that from Montego Bay you can take a boat to Santiago de Cuba in Oriente
for $40.00. Seems like a nice way of getting there without an automated passenger
manifest... That's all we know, folks. For further details, consult a travel
agent.

Phones

According to the only information we have about the meeting, published by
Cubaminrex.cu, Cuban representatives underlined the fact that mutual
protection of brands and patents will be a key aspect of improving bilateral
relations. This took place just a year after Sony and EGREM signed a music
distribution agreement, the terms of which we also have no knowledge about.